Systems and methods for automatically verifying packaging of solid pharmaceuticals via robotic technology according to patient prescription data

ABSTRACT

Robotic pick-and-place automation is used to transfer oral solid pharmaceuticals from moveable trays or canisters. Sensors are used to verify that the pharmaceuticals have been properly placed in the desired pharmaceutical locations precisely according to the patient prescription data. A pharmacist places pharmaceutical products within dispensing trays or canisters to present the pharmaceutical products for picking and placing via the robotic pick-and-place machinery. Once the canister or tray is located adjacent the pick-and-place device, a sensor or imaging unit associated with the pick-and-place device verifies that the pharmaceutical product, the size, shape, and/or color of an expected pharmaceutical product that is to be placed within the packaging material in accordance with patient prescription data stored by a computer associated with the system. Sensors verify that each individual pharmaceutical specified by a patient prescription have been deposited into each specified location strictly in accordance with the patient prescription data.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED-APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/532,853, filed Nov. 4, 2014, the full disclosure of which isincorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to the field of automated oralsolid pharmaceutical packaging mechanisms for packaging oral solidpharmaceuticals in packages in accordance with patient prescriptioninformation. More specifically, the present invention is directed tosystems and methods for automatically verifying placement of oral solidpharmaceuticals within packaging according to patient prescription data.A variety of systems and methods are disclosed which provide rapid andefficient verification of oral solid pharmaceutical product placementwithin packaging in accordance with patient prescription data. Thesystems and methods which are described below provide multipleindependent verifications within a single piece of automation thatensure absolute confidence that the placement of oral solidpharmaceuticals within packaging strictly matches patient prescriptiondosing information.

Description of the Related Art

Currently, various automated packaging systems exist for placing oralsolid pharmaceuticals into packaging solutions which correlateindividual dosing times with patient prescription dated. Examplesinclude U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,831,773 and 7,185,476 which are incorporatedherein by reference. These issued patents describe systems that arecapable of placing one or more oral solid pharmaceutical products intopackage cavities that correspond to patient prescription data and areherein incorporated by reference in their entirety. While the existingsolutions describe various systems that are capable of rapidly andefficiently placing oral solid pharmaceuticals into packages, thereremains a need in the art for ensuring that the oral solidpharmaceuticals have been precisely placed into the packages accordingto the patient prescription data with absolute confidence and within asingle system. Currently there are no systems available that provideautomatic verification that oral solid pharmaceutical packaging has beenfilled precisely according to patient prescription data within a singlesystem and blister carded packaging. Accordingly, there remains a needin the field for systems and methods that are capable of ensuring thatoral solid pharmaceuticals have been placed strictly in accordance withpredetermined patient prescription data within a single system and inblister carded packaging.

The conventional approach to solving this issue requires that a trainedtechnician or pharmacist review the packaged pharmaceuticals in order toensure that the oral solid pharmaceutical products have been properlyplaced within the packaging material. The conventional approach is proneto errors and significant delays associated with the manual reviewprocess. Applicants' innovation that is set forth below overcomes thesedeficiencies of existing systems and obviates the need for postpackaging quality review. Applicants' unique use and arrangement ofvarious sensors ensures that the oral solid pharmaceuticals have beenpackaged properly.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

In accordance with a first preferred exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention, robotic pick-and-place automation is used to transfer oralsolid pharmaceuticals from moveable trays or canisters that have beenquality checked by a pharmacist to package locations in accordance withpatient prescription data. Advantageously, in accordance with thepresent invention, a variety of sensors are used in order to verify thatthe oral solid pharmaceuticals have been properly placed in the desiredoral solid pharmaceutical package locations precisely according to thepatient prescription data. In accordance with a first preferredembodiment of the present invention, a pharmacist places oral solidpharmaceutical products within dispensing trays or canisters which areused to present the oral solid pharmaceutical products for picking andplacing via the robotic pick-and-place machinery. Once the canister ortray is located adjacent the pick-and-place device, a further sensor orimaging unit associated with the pick-and-place device verifies that theoral solid pharmaceutical product presented by the tray or canistermatches the size and shape and/or color of an expected oral solidpharmaceutical product that is to be placed within the packagingmaterial in accordance with patient prescription data that is stored bya computer associated with the system.

If the expected data matches the actual oral solid pharmaceuticalproduct sensed by the imaging unit associated with the pick-and-placedevice, the robotic pick-and-place continues to transfer one oral solidpharmaceutical product to a desired package location which has a dosingtime corresponding to the patient prescription data that is for thepackage that is currently being filled. Once the robotic pick-and-placeend of arm tooling has transferred the oral solid pharmaceutical productto the desired package location, additional sensing units ensure thatthe transfer is completed into the desired package location in order toverify that the robotic pick-and-place unit has dropped the oral solidpharmaceutical product into a desired package location. If the imagingsensor of the robotic pick-and-place device determines that the oralsolid pharmaceutical product presented at the tray or canister is not amatch to the expected oral solid pharmaceutical product according to thecurrent patient prescription data, then the system issues an alert tothe system operator in order to prevent the erroneous transfer of oralsolid pharmaceutical products into the packaging material and will notpick that oral solid pharmaceutical.

In accordance with a preferred exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention, a med verification tray or transfer sensing unit is locatedbetween the end of arm tooling for the robotic pick-and-place mechanismand a oral solid pharmaceutical product package or temporary storehaving cavity locations corresponding to the cavities of a solidpharmaceutical package that is to be filled by the system. The medverification tray or transfer sensing unit preferably includes aplurality of sensors that operate to confirm transfer from the roboticpick-and-place end of arm tooling into the package cavity locationcorresponding to the prescription data that is currently being filled bythe system. It is preferred that the system is able to ensure that aspecific cavity location is being filled by confirming the drop of theoral solid pharmaceutical from the robotic pick-and-place end of armtooling.

In accordance with a first preferred exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention, one or more optical sensing units are used to ensure that theoral solid pharmaceutical product that is transferred by the roboticpick-and-place device actually drops into the specific package cavitylocation that is to be filled by the system. In a first preferredexemplary embodiment, an optical sensor unit includes an emitter thatemits a wide beam that at least substantially covers a region above thecavity location that is to be filled. One or more receiving units arelocated opposite the emitting unit and sense the emitted beam generatedby the emitter. An interrupt signal is generated when the one or morereceiving units sense that at least a portion of the beam has beeninterrupted. Because the emitter and receiving unit are preferablyindividually associated with each package cavity location, it ispossible to confirm that an oral solid pharmaceutical has beentransferred by the robotic pick-and-place unit from the dispensing trayor canister specifically into a desired oral solid pharmaceuticalpackage cavity location corresponding to the patient prescription data.This technique ensures strict compliance for packaging oral solidpharmaceutical products in accordance with stored patient prescriptiondata. It is also preferred that the sensors of the med verification trayor transfer sensing unit preferably sense any additional breach of thebeam immediately after the drop of the oral solid pharmaceutical productin order to ensure that the oral solid pharmaceutical product does notbounce from the desired oral solid pharmaceutical packaging locationwhen the oral solid pharmaceutical product is dropped by the roboticpick-and-place device.

A further verification may also be performed by imaging the packagedpharmaceuticals and matching the oral solid pharmaceutical productslocated within each package cavity with the corresponding patientprescription data for the specific dosing time corresponding to thepackage cavity location. In accordance with the foregoing verifications,it is possible to ensure that the individual oral solid pharmaceuticalpackage cavities have been filled with the appropriate dosescorresponding to predetermined patient prescription data with absoluteconfidence. Conventional systems have not been able to provide this highlevel of confidence for the existing automated oral solid pharmaceuticalpackaging systems. The present invention overcomes these shortcomingsand deficiencies of the existing systems thereby providing a much moreeconomical and efficient packaging solution.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a first exemplary embodiment of the overall roboticpick-and-place oral solid pharmaceutical packaging system of the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a first exemplary embodiment of the med verificationtray or transfer sensing unit of the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates a second exemplary embodiment of the med verificationtray or transfer sensing unit of the present invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates is a flow diagram illustration of the process forautomatically verifying packaging of oral solid pharmaceuticals;

FIG. 5 illustrates a second exemplary embodiment of the oral solidpharmaceutical transfer tray or cassette of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENTLY PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 illustrates a first preferred exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention which is generally shown at 10 in the illustration. A roboticpick-and-place unit 12 transfers oral solid pharmaceutical products fromthe transfer trays or cassettes 14, 15, 16 into individual oral solidpharmaceutical package locations in accordance with patient prescriptiondata. The individual transfer trays or cassettes 14, 15, 16 arepreferably transferred to the respective locations shown in theillustration by another transfer robot from a staging location at whicha pharmacist or technician fills the individual trays or cassettes frombulk storage. An initial verification is provided by a pharmacist ortechnician in order to ensure that the medications placed into thetransfer trays or cassettes 14, 15, 16 match the medication designatedfor a specific transfer tray or cassette. Bar coding verification orother automatically verified visual coding is preferably used by theautomated system in order to confirm that an individual tray or cassettethat is staged adjacent the robotic pick-and place unit 12 for fillingmatches the designation provided by the pharmacist or technician at thetime of filling.

An additional verification of the oral solid pharmaceutical is performedby an imaging unit (not shown) that is preferably associated with theend of arm tooling portion 18 of the robotic pick-and-place unit 12. Theimaging unit provides image data for comparison with a library of imagedata that is used to ensure the oral solid pharmaceutical actuallypicked up by the robotic pick-and place unit 12 matches an expected oralsolid pharmaceutical designated by a prescription to be filled based ona plurality of visual characteristics including one or more of shape,size, and/or color of the solid oral pharmaceutical. The imaging unit isalso preferably used in order to ensure that the end of arm tooling isplaced properly above a specific oral solid pharmaceutical so that thesuction tip is able to grab and move an individual solid pharmaceutical.An automated processing unit compares the actual image data withexpected image data to determine whether there is a match, if there isno match then an alert is issued to the system operator.

In accordance with a preferred exemplary embodiment as illustrated inFIGS. 1 and 2, the end of arm tooling portion 18 initially engages asuction tip 75 that is secured to the transfer tray or cassette 14, 15,or 16 from which a solid oral pharmaceutical 24 is to be transferred forpackaging. The suction tip 75 is a soft rubber end that is engaged andremoved from the end of arm tooling portion 18 at each cassette 14, 15,or 16 so that each cassette or transfer tray 14, 15, or 16 has its owndedicated suction tip 75 thereby avoiding the potential forcross-contamination from different medications that are filled by thesystem. Once all medications have been transferred from a particulartransfer tray or cassette 14, 15, or 16 for a particular package that isbeing filled by the system, the suction tip 75 of the end of arm toolingportion 18 is again secured to its corresponding transfer tray orcassette 14, 15, or 16 so that it is available for use the next timethat a solid oral pharmaceutical 24 is to be transferred from thetransfer tray or cassette 14, 15, or 16. The round suction tip 75 ispreferably temporarily secured at the transfer tray or cassette 14, 15,or 16 via a plastic semicircular structure 8 so that the end of armtooling portion 18 can easily engage and disengage the suction tip 75 ofeach cassette or transfer tray 14, 15, or 16.

FIG. 1 also illustrates the location of the med transfer verificationunit 20 that is placed above a package or package template that is to befilled by the system. The med transfer verification unit 20 incorporatesa plurality of sensors that verify the transfer into a specific packageor package template cavity corresponding to a patient prescription thatis filled by the system.

FIG. 2 illustrates a first exemplary embodiment of the med transferverification unit 20. The med transfer verification unit 20 preferablyincludes an array of cavities 22 that each individually provide atransfer path for a solid oral pharmaceutical that is packaged by thesystem of the present invention. The array of cavities 22 of the medtransfer verification unit 20 preferably correspond with the individualcavities of an oral solid pharmaceutical product package that is locatedbeneath the med transfer verification unit 20. Each cavity of thepackage or package template corresponds with a specific patient dosingtime and the system automatically transfers each required oral solidpharmaceutical into its specified location strictly in accordance withpredetermined patient prescription data using the robotic pick-and-placeunit.

FIG. 2 also illustrates a plurality of electromagnetic emitter units 26that are used to verify that medication transferred by the roboticpick-and-place unit actually drops into a desired package cavity ortemplate location. In accordance with this first embodiment, anelectromagnetic energy receiving unit (not shown) is placed oppositeeach of the electromagnetic emitting units and a path is formed in themed transfer verification unit 20 through the oral solid pharmaceuticaltransfer path for each cavity in a given row or column of the medtransfer verification unit 20 in order to confirm that an oral solidpharmaceutical has been deposited in a desired cavity according to thepredetermined patient prescription data. In accordance with this firstembodiment of the med transfer verification unit 20, it is possible toverify that an oral solid pharmaceutical has been deposited by the endof arm tooling but verification is only possible for rows or columns ofthe med transfer verification unit 20. Those skilled in the art willappreciate that additional emitters and receivers can be used in orderto provide greater resolution for pill drop verification into eachindividual cavity. The med transfer verification unit 20 also acts as abarrier between cavities to prevent inadvertent transfer of themedication between the cavities.

FIG. 3 illustrates an alternate embodiment of the med transferverification unit 20 wherein each cavity 22 of the med transferverification unit 20 includes its own pair of electromagnet emitter andreceiver units for specifically confirming that a solid oralpharmaceutical has been dropped into a specific cavity of a package inaccordance with patient prescription data. The electromagnetic emitterunits are not shown in the illustration of FIG. 3. FIG. 3 illustratesthe med transfer verification unit 20 and the individual electromagneticreceiving units 30 that are individually associated with each cavity ofthe med transfer verification unit 20. When an individual solid oralpharmaceutical is dropped by the robotic pick-and-place unit through aspecific cavity of the med transfer verification unit 20, the medtransfer verification unit 20 is able to sense and verify the drop ofthe solid oral pharmaceutical based on a break in the beam that isreceived by each of the electromagnetic receiving units 30. This sensingof the drop at each individual cavity provides confirmation that theoral solid pharmaceutical that has been dropped by the roboticpick-and-place unit into the package strictly in accordance with thepredetermined patient prescription data. The individual electromagneticemitters and receivers can also be used to ensure that pills have notbounced out from the cavities by verifying that only a single break inthe beam is associated with each pill drop.

Additional image data from optical sensing units positioned above and/orbelow the package cavity may be used to further confirm that eachindividual cavity has been properly filled with the oral solidpharmaceuticals strictly in accordance with the predetermined patientprescription data.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram which illustrates the overall process forautomatically verifying the placement of oral solid pharmaceuticalproducts into specific cavities of a package strictly in accordance withpatient prescription data stored in an electronic memory of a computercontroller that is used for controlling the packaging machinery. In step42 a pharmacist or technician verifies transfer of medication from bulkstorage into the appropriate canister or dispenser for the specifiedmedication. The medication canister is returned to a carousel where itcan be automatically retrieved by a robot for transfer to the roboticpick-and place device of the present invention. It is preferred that abar code, QR code or rfid reader associated with the system reads a codeon the canister before it is positioned at a specific location in astaging area so a robotic retriever can transfer the desired canisterautomatically to the robotic pick-and-place unit.

In step 44, a bar code or other automated reader reads a code or datafrom the canister when it is transferred to the staging area of therobotic pick-and-place packaging system in order to ensure that thesystem transfers the desired medication. In step 46, image data from thepick-and-place unit verifies that the individual pill being transferredhas physical characteristics matching those of the expected pill. Instep 48, the system verifies drop of the pill into the specific packagecavity corresponding to the patient prescription data. Finally, in step50, the resultant package is labeled and sealed with the patientspecific data after all required medications for all doses specified bypatient prescription data have been filled by the system into thecavities of the product package.

In an alternate more manual version of the system, the med transferverification tray includes one or more lights that illuminate at aregion of the tray corresponding to a specific cavity of the packagethat is to be filled with an oral solid pharmaceutical. This assists inthe manual transfer of oral solid pharmaceuticals into specific packagecavities according to patient prescription data. The remainingoperations associated with pill transfer can then be performed inaccordance with manual transfer into a package cavity. The system causeone or more lights in a specific region to illuminate in order to guidethe user to place a solid pharmaceutical in a desired package locationcorresponding to patient prescription data.

FIG. 5 illustrates the details of the end of arm tooling for the roboticpick-and-place device which is shown generally at 60. High pressure andlow pressure lines 62 and 64 operate to generate a vacuum at the suctiontube 65. A pressure sensor 66 located proximate the suction tube 65operates to ensure that a pill has been picked up by the system based ona predetermined pressure change at the pressure sensor 66. A valve 67 isa pneumatic solenoid switch that selectively applies the vacuum at thesuction tube 65. The switch is preferably a 2 msec switch which causesthe pressure change within 10 msec at the suction tube end within 10msec. The solenoid switch or valve 67 consists of four standard portsand the port A and B are the supply of negative pressure and positivepressure. Port A is directly coupled to the vacuum ejector whichsupplies the negative pressure and port B is directly coupled to apositive pressure regulator which supplies low positive pressure. As aresult, the P port is the port which supplies the vacuum pressure andthe positive pressure to the suction tube. Ports A and B always have thevacuum and positive pressure active during picking and placingoperations. This arrangement assures rapid pressure changes at the endof the suction tube 65. The positive pressure is required to simply andeffectively remove the vacuum pressure at the end of suction tube 65.

For performing pill drop verification, it is preferred to use emitterssuch as model LV S 62 manufactured by Keyence as an optical emitteralong with an optical sensor. Alternatively a Fairchild semiconductorinfrared emitting diode can be used as the light source in conjunctionwith an optical sensor. Those skilled in the art will appreciate thatvirtually any emitter and sensor can be used to sense a break in thesensed emission beam associated with the transit of an oral solidpharmaceutical into a product package cavity. In an alternatearrangement, it is recognized that one or more imaging units could beused to sense the transit of oral solid pharmaceuticals into packagecavities but this arrangement requires additional image data processingin order to identify transfer into a specific package cavity.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various substitutions andalterations can be made to the systems and methods described in theinstant application while still falling within the scope of the appendedclaims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for automatically verifying packaging oforal solid pharmaceutical medications comprising: verifying placement ofa plurality of oral solid pharmaceuticals into each of a plurality ofdispensing containers, each individual dispensing container beingdedicated to a specific oral solid pharmaceutical medication;automatically transferring a plurality of individual dispensingcontainers to a staging location of a robotic pick-and-place transfermechanism and verifying that a specific dispensing container is locatedat a specific staging location for transferring oral solidpharmaceuticals from the dispensing container; moving an end of an armtooling of the robotic pick-and-place transfer mechanism to engage afirst suction tip that is removably secured to a first dispensingcontainer associated with a first type of oral solid pharmaceutical;using the robotic pick-and-place transfer mechanism to automaticallytransfer individual oral solid pharmaceutical medications from at leastone of a plurality of dispensing containers to cavity locations of aproduct package that each correspond to patient prescription data;automatically verifying that each of the individual oral solidpharmaceutical medications is transferred to a correct cavity location;upon transferring all of the first type of oral solid pharmaceutical fora particular product package, securing, using the end of the armtooling, the first suction tip to the first dispensing container; andmoving the end of the arm tooling of the robotic pick-and-place transfermechanism to engage a second suction tip that is removably secured to asecond dispensing container associated with a second type of oral solidpharmaceutical.
 2. The method for automatically verifying packing oforal solid pharmaceutical medications of claim 1, wherein: automaticallyverifying that each of the individual oral solid pharmaceuticalmedications is transferred to a correct cavity location comprisesverifying, using an imaging unit associated with the roboticpick-and-place transfer mechanism, that each oral solid pharmaceuticalmedication transferred by the robotic pick-and-place transfer mechanismmatches predetermined physical parameters of an oral solidpharmaceutical that is specified for transfer into a specific cavitylocation based on the patient prescription data.
 3. The method forautomatically verifying packing of oral solid pharmaceutical medicationsof claim 2, wherein: the predetermined physical parameters comprisevisual characteristics of the oral solid pharmaceutical stored as imagedata; and verifying that each oral solid pharmaceutical medicationtransferred by the robotic pick-and-place transfer mechanism matchespredetermined physical parameters comprises comparing image data fromthe imaging unit with a library containing a plurality of image data fora plurality of oral solid pharmaceuticals.
 4. The method forautomatically verifying packing of oral solid pharmaceutical medicationsof claim 1, wherein: automatically verifying that each of the individualoral solid pharmaceutical medications is transferred to a correct cavitylocation comprises imaging the transferred oral solid pharmaceuticalmedications and matching the oral solid pharmaceutical medicationslocation within each cavity location with corresponding patientprescription data associated with each cavity location.
 5. The methodfor automatically verifying packing of oral solid pharmaceuticalmedications of claim 1, further comprising: automatically sealing andprinting patient identification and prescription data on the productpackage once all oral solid pharmaceutical specified by the patientprescription data have been transferred into the product packagecavities specified by the patient prescription data.
 6. The method forautomatically verifying packing of oral solid pharmaceutical medicationsof claim 1, wherein: automatically verifying that each of the individualoral solid pharmaceutical medications is transferred to a correct cavitylocation comprises detecting a break an emitter beam for a single one ofthe individual oral solid pharmaceutical medications to confirm that thesingle one of the individual oral solid pharmaceutical medications hasbeen deposited in a desired cavity according to the patient prescriptiondata.
 7. The method for automatically verifying packing of oral solidpharmaceutical medications of claim 1, wherein: the emitter beam extendsacross one or both of a row or a column of cavity location of a transfervalidation unit that is positioned above the product package.
 8. Amethod for automatically verifying packaging of oral solidpharmaceutical medications comprising: moving an end of an arm toolingof a robotic pick-and-place transfer mechanism to engage a first suctiontip that is removably secured to a first dispensing container associatedwith a first type of oral solid pharmaceutical; using the roboticpick-and-place transfer mechanism to automatically transfer individualoral solid pharmaceutical medications from at least one of a pluralityof dispensing containers to cavity locations of a transfer validationunit that each correspond to patient prescription data; upontransferring all of the first type of oral solid pharmaceutical for aparticular product package, securing, using the end of the arm tooling,the first suction tip to the first dispensing container; moving the endof the arm tooling of the robotic pick-and-place transfer mechanism toengage a second suction tip that is removably secured to a seconddispensing container associated with a second type of oral solidpharmaceutical; and automatically sealing and printing patientidentification and prescription data on the product package once alloral solid pharmaceutical specified by the patient prescription datahave been transferred into the product package cavities specified by thepatient prescription data.
 9. The method for automatically verifyingpacking of oral solid pharmaceutical medications of claim 8, furthercomprising: automatically verifying that each of the individual oralsolid pharmaceutical medications is transferred to a correct cavitylocation.
 10. The method for automatically verifying packing of oralsolid pharmaceutical medications of claim 8, further comprising: priorto using the robotic pick-and-place transfer mechanism to automaticallytransfer each of the individual oral solid pharmaceutical medications,automatically verifying whether an image of a specific one of theindividual oral solid pharmaceutical medications matches an expectedimage.
 11. The method for automatically verifying packing of oral solidpharmaceutical medications of claim 10, further comprising: issuing analert if the image of the specific one of the individual oral solidpharmaceutical medications does not match the expected image.
 12. Themethod for automatically verifying packing of oral solid pharmaceuticalmedications of claim 8, further comprising: detecting a break an emitterbeam for a single one of the individual oral solid pharmaceuticalmedications to confirm that the single one of the individual oral solidpharmaceutical medications has been deposited in a desired cavityaccording to the patient prescription data.
 13. The method forautomatically verifying packing of oral solid pharmaceutical medicationsof claim 12, wherein: the first emitter beam is one of a plurality ofemitter beams; and each cavity location comprises a dedicated one of theplurality of emitter beams.
 14. The method for automatically verifyingpacking of oral solid pharmaceutical medications of claim 12, wherein:the first emitter beam is one of a plurality of emitter beams; and eachof the plurality of emitter beams extends across a single column or rowof cavity locations.
 15. A system for automatically verifying packing oforal solid pharmaceutical medications, comprising: a roboticpick-and-place unit having an arm tooling having an end, wherein the endof the arm tooling is configured to: move to engage a first suction tipthat is removably secured to a first dispensing container associatedwith a first type of oral solid pharmaceutical; upon transferring all ofthe first type of oral solid pharmaceutical for a particular productpackage, secure the first suction tip to the first dispensing container;move to engage a second suction tip that is removably secured to asecond dispensing container associated with a second type of oral solidpharmaceutical; and move between each of a plurality of dispensingcontainers and cavity location of the particular product package toautomatically transfer individual oral solid pharmaceutical medicationsfrom at least one of the plurality of dispensing containers to cavitylocations of the particular product package that each correspond topatient prescription data.
 16. The system for automatically verifyingpacking of oral solid pharmaceutical medications of claim 15, furthercomprising: at least one optical sensor unit associated with thetransfer validation unit, the at least one optical sensor unit beingconfigured to detect when a particular one of the oral solidpharmaceutical medications has been transferred into a corresponding oneof the cavity locations.
 17. The system for automatically verifyingpacking of oral solid pharmaceutical medications of claim 16, wherein:the at least one optical sensor unit is further configured to sense whenthe end of the arm tooling is placed above a specific oral solidpharmaceutical.
 18. The system for automatically verifying packing oforal solid pharmaceutical medications of claim 15, wherein: the firstsuction tip is removably secured to the first dispensing container usinga semicircular retaining structure.
 19. The system for automaticallyverifying packing of oral solid pharmaceutical medications of claim 15,further comprising: a transfer validation unit positioned above theparticular product package, the transfer validation unit comprising atleast one emitter beam, the transfer validation unit being configured todetect a break in the at least one emitter beam for a single one of theindividual oral solid pharmaceutical medications to confirm that thesingle one of the individual oral solid pharmaceutical medications hasbeen deposited in a desired cavity according to the patient prescriptiondata.
 20. The system for automatically verifying packing of oral solidpharmaceutical medications of claim 15, further comprising: one or moreoptical sensing units positioned above, below, or above and below cavitylocations, wherein the one or more optical sensing units are configuredto verify that each of the individual oral solid pharmaceuticalmedications is transferred to a correct cavity location by imaging thetransferred oral solid pharmaceutical medications and matching the oralsolid pharmaceutical medications location within each cavity locationwith corresponding patient prescription data associated with each cavitylocation.